Chapter 34 Austin Plant - Plant Family History Group

William Plente (1272-84) 123 in Norfolk records, perhaps all the same person. The loss of inflexion
endings similar to the –e of Plente or Plante or Plonte occurred later in the South West dialect region
than in the West Midlands 124 where the spelling Plonte is mostly found. Hence, it could have been
that it was the same name that developed into Plenty in the South West dialect region but Plant in the
West Midlands. It is mainly in Somerset that the surname Plenty (a possible respelling of Plente) is
now clustered. The Plente name may have originated with an ‘abundance’ or ‘fertility’ meaning 125 ;
and then austere sentiments 126 could have led, by the mid-thirteenth-century, to an incentive to
ameliorate the spelling of Plente to a less extravagant meaning; this could have produced Plante and
its dialect equivalent Plonte, though the spelling Plente is known to have survived outside the West
Midlands into the fourteenth century 127 .
It has not yet been DNA tested whether Plenty belongs to the same male-line family as Plant or
whether this relates to similar names overseas. A notable Plente in the South West was the king’s
minister in Devon, Roger Plente 128 , who for example, in 1364, was licensed ‘to take 20 packs of
cloth of divers colours from the port of Exeter to Gascony, Spain, and other parts beyond seas;
and to return with wine and other merchandise to the ports of London, Suthampton, Sandwich or
Exeter’. It is not yet clear whether this relates to a cluster of the name spelling Plante (817) or Plantie
(102) or Planty (105) in modern Gascony, though recent advances in Y-DNA testing offer improved
prospects for investigating the possible travels of single families despite possible variations in the
spellings of their names.
Most names have not yet been Y-DNA tested and there are, for example, no results to report for
such names as Plante in Spain (32), or the noble name Planta in Switzerland (52), or the English
name Somerset which is said to descend down intact male lines from the noble ‘Plantagenets’ (Beauforts).
So far it can only be added that the initial Y-DNA results indicate that a French-Canadian
Plante family 129 is genetically distinct from the main English Plant family 130 .
In short, it is possible that there may have been some cultural influence from the Plante Genest
nickname but there is no evidence that the Plants were genetically related to the Plantagenets. It is
possible that the English Plants began with an ‘abundant’ or ‘fertile’ meaning to their name, with
the spelling Plente, and that this had been influenced by a ‘hairy shoot’ meaning to Plante Genest.
Though the nature of this influence may not seem immediately clear, a medieval study reveals that
there was a metaphysical connection, since the plant powers (i.e. vegetable soul) of a ‘hairy shoot’
(Plantagenet) brought forth the plenty (Plente) of growth and offspring. Then, with the spelling
Plante or Plonte, the meaning of Plente could have been sanitised to ‘offspring’, if that was not
indeed the meaning of the Plant surname from its outset for this family.
123
Norwich Cathedral Charters.
124
J.A. Burrow and T. Turville-Petre (1992) op. cit., pp. 3-4, 6-7, 20-21.
125
The MED defines plente as an alternative spelling of plaunt(e) or 1(a) abundance, prosperity, wealth; also, the
goddess of abundance; ... [(b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g) similar meanings] ... (h) fertility, productivity, fruitfulness; abundant
production of crops, profusion of flowers; (i) generosity, bounty; 2(a) fullness, completeness, perfection; 2(b) full measure
or number; totality; 2(c) satiety, satisfaction; 3 a projection of the extremity of a bone structure, Also, as an adjective:
abundant, plentiful.
126
Both abundance and sexuality were renounced by the Franciscan ‘spirituals’ as well as the Cistercians. For example,
the austere Joachim of Calabria (c1135-1202) became one of the most respected religious figures by the thirteenth century.
Haft, White and White, The Key to “The Name of the Rose” (Ann Arbor, 1999), pp. 68-69).
127
e.g. John Plente, vicar of the cathedral church of Chichester, Patent Rolls 1343; John Plente, witness at Theydene
Boys, Close Rolls 1343; Reynold Plente, Cornwall, Close Rolls 1393.
128
Patent Rolls 1364; Fine Rolls 1364; Patent Rolls 1365; Patent Rolls 1367; Patent Rolls 1368.
129
So far, only four members of this family have been Y-DNA tested of which three match each other but are genetically
distinct from the main English Plant family.
130
So far twenty Plant males from England and North America have been Y-DNA tested of which eleven match, including
two with the name spelling Plantt. When half or more match, the name can be said to be a single-family surname.
Those that do not match can be expected to have descended, at some stage down the centuries, through a false paternity
event (i.e. an event involving the adoption of the Plant surname though the true father was not a Plant).
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